Symbolic Implications of the Feminine Mask: A Study in Al-Arjy’s Poetry

Abstract

A careful and close reading of Al-Arjy’s poetry reveals that the female constitutes a focal structure in his poetry. Al-Arjy’s structural approach to the image of the woman (the female) in his poetry makes the woman the catalyst of many argumentative issues that have human, existential, and ideological implications. As a result, these issues will be directly related to the cultural and social contexts that created them. Depending on this understanding, the present study will address two strongly related focal points: First: The theoretical part that will investigate the “mask” and its conceptual and terminological dimensions (implications). Then the study will discuss the importance of the “mask” in the recent studies of literary criticism. Second: The practical part that will investigate the semantic transformations of the “mask” in Al-Arjy’s poetry, emphasizing the following implications: The ideological implications of the feminine “mask”. The feminine mask as “the lost good voice”. The recent image of the “negative” woman. The “wedded” woman as “the lost feminine voice”.